If there is any meaning for the word humanitarian, the minimum humanitarian act right now is to drop food to the civilians of Vanni without wasting a minute, repeatedly appealed health officials in Vanni on Tuesday, as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe caused by Sri Lankan government enforced starvation engulfs the civilians of Vanni. “The US government and the world should realise that the situation culminating in the most inhuman act of Colombo calculatedly inflicting death on civilians is ultimately a consequence of the lopsided application of a US policy, and the US has every responsibility to remedy it. Failure amounts to connivance to the crime. US has to immediately airdrop food”, said a relief official in Vanni.
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) dropped several cluster bombs Tuesday, killing scores in the so-called safety zone, in Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal and Iraddai-vaaykkaal area. There were also Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets that caused immediate fire to shelters killing and maiming families throughout the night. Exact casualty details were not available as the dead were not brought to the hospital and the hospital was not in a state to report on exact details of the wounded. The ICRC ship which was expected on Tuesday didn’t arrive, the doctors said.
"Colombo, blatantly lying to the world that what takes place is only ‘hostage rescue’ and it is not using heavy weapons, is actually engaged in an all out war to kill or imprison free civilians by the use of all heavy and prohibited weapons. The worst weapon it uses is complete denial of food," complained the relief official who was engaged in arrangements with moving the hospital to a new location as Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells have hit the makeshift hospital several times. Patients were struggling without medicines and shelter.
"The Indian Establishment is not only extending its war partnership with Colombo indefinitely, but also is believed to be pressurizing Colombo to use ‘all methods’ to win the war before the Establishment’s fate is decided in the elections in mid May. The starvation agenda is believed to be one such either to kill or to crush the will of the freedom loving people and to incarcerate them."
Tamils all over the world are enraged and they are not impressed by what they blame as ‘meaningless deliberations in the UN, empty statements and visits of dignitaries just to say Colombo is not cooperating.’
Inaction by certain countries after contributing to the situation, and sitting on action by some other countries are seriously viewed by the Tamil circles as amounting to being parties to the crime of genocide that has now reached the most shameful stage of denying food completely.
"When the US adopted a discredited approach to the crisis, the countries tagged behind it echoed it in a chorus. Neither the US nor the others have asked the UN when they decided on the approach. Remedying the crisis rests in the hands of the Obama administration," said a prominent health official whose name is withheld for security purposes.
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